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Karen House
, nominally |signature = |languages_spoken = , }} Karen Elisabeth House (born 16 July 1980) is a Marianan politician and the mayor of Palma, the capital city. She has lived all of her life in Palma, studying at Eldridge Primary School and Ambrosian College before going to work at a mobile company store. House has been a member of the Social Democratic Party since 2014 and was their candidate for mayor of Palma in the 2015 election. In July 2016 she signed up as a candidate for the SDP's leadership, which she failed to win. House was unable to have a tertiary education, instead working in small jobs, but her outspoken, direct character and have seen her progress well in her political career, certainly within her party. House has become one of the most outspoken politicians in the party, being a voice for members not in government or congress. Her views and actions have led to some sort of split in the party ranks, between the traditional more moderate base and the radical, alternative leftist views she espouses. Early life House was born in Palma to Gerald House and his Romanian wife, Elena Dumitrescu. She was the couple's third child. Gerald was an accountant in Palma, and Elena worked as a special-needs teacher. She has stated they were hard working but lower income, though she and her siblings had a good upbringing. House went to Eldridge Primary School (1986-1992) and the prestigious public Ambrosian College (1992-1998), but her economic status dictated her entry to the workforce instead of going to university. In recent years she stated she was offered a scholarship to the University of Ciutadella but had to turn down as she could not afford the remaining fees. Early career House then worked at a Hot Hat's restaurant from 1998 to 2003. She then joined tell.me, a mobile phone company, where she became a manager at a regional store at the West Galleries shopping center. After taking a number of nighttime courses at a technical school, she became a secretary at the municipal government of Palma in 2006. After a few years in that position, with several professional development courses, she was able to enter the city government, working a public service job in the traffic department. She would look back on this period with pride, and reference it in some of her speeches, where with hard work and education and no proper tertiary education, a citizen could move beyond and minimum-wage job. Her years of experience in the municipal government prompted her to move onto elected positions, and in 2013, she was able to replace an SDP councilor who was retiring in the city government. Mayorship 2015 House stepped up as candidate for the party's mayoral candidate for Palma in May 2015; she was initially written off for having little experience and no tertiary education, but she proved a very good orator, was apt at research and was excellent at debating and arguing, frequently besting her other challengers. While the party in the city was divided over which candidate to select, lack of enough support for one of the three other candidates led them to elect House, as she had no political links to or issues with other factions. On election day, 30 October 2015, the SDP finished in third place, behind the Green Party of incumbent mayor Ramzi Karimi and the new alternative leftist Avanze. Avanze was a surprise win and the mayorship a major coup for such a new party, but eventually through negotiation the Greens decided to back House for mayor. Once elected mayor, she embarked on a program that created a city logo and introduced rationed driving days in the downtown core to reduce congestion. By the end of the year, a proposal for a taxation benefit for green and hybrid vehicles was passed, which would help to offset the costs of ownership. 2016 In June 2016 she began to speak out against the EU following the Brexit vote, saying the organization was a <> that could never agree on passing any amount of legislation, easily solvable by the use of bilateral cooperation. Asked why she has been the first significant person to propose such an exit, she stated that Palma bore most of Mariana's contributions due to being the most populous city, and that said money would be better off being spent towards other urban projects. SDP leadership race Upon the resignation of Gert Henneman as leader of the SDP, Karen House became the first person to announce her candidacy for party leadership. Of the five eventual candidates, she was the only one outside of congress. She received 70 endorsements, just behind former Prime Minister Ines Michels and representative Pieter Van Buskirk. House said that she wished to <> and bring more power to party members outside of congress. She stated she would take the party on an anti-EU course, part of her rhetoric in the past month, and definitely push to take Mariana to the forefront of social and environmental advancements. During the first debate, House was the surprise, not conceding to the other, more experienced candidates. She spoke out heavily against the power of congress, the incompetence of EU leadership and became the first SDP member to openly advocate for an EU exit. On 15 July, House launched a simple poster advert stating to vote House to beat the House, in reference to the other candidates all members of the House of Representatives, with the hashtag KARENforSDP trending on Twitter in Mariana. Almost immediately the other candidates responded saying that as members of the House they have experience, and former Prime Minister Ines Michels going so far as to say she was <> and not yet experienced to head the party. In the first election, House finished with 20.6% of the vote (1213 total), behind Van Buskirk's 1598 but ahead of Michels' 1008, heading to a runoff. Following this the other candidates moved to support Van Buskirk, which House called "fear by the establishment on having change in the party". A number of party members not in the House responded positively to her campaign, notably Christiane Vanderberg and Giulio Conti, both mayors. House finished in second place and did not win; she received 40.5% of the vote (1974 total), a near 20% difference from Van Buskirk. She congratulated his win, but stated that party "leadership may have conspired to derail her campaign". House became an influence in the run up to the 2016 Marianan general election, as five SDP members seen as part of the pro-House bloc voted against a bill to raise the IVA (the VAT tax) and led to the government forced to call elections. 2017 In late 2017, particularly from November, House began toying with the idea of stopping payments to the government earmarked for EU purposes. A spokesperson for the Finance Minister said such an action would be illegal and could see her removed from her position, but the mayor responded with a message on the rights of a city to control how it uses its own revenues. This argument has pitted her against congress, and a number of residents of Palma have begun to speak in favor of this idea. Controversy House has become a very controversial politician, particularly among the SDP's leadership for creating division among the ranks. She is particularly outspoken against the traditional leadership and relative insignificance of party members outside of congress. Much of the party's leadership has blamed her for the rise of YES and the alt-left, but House has stated the SDP is about change to keep in tune with voters' needs. She has also been virulent towards the EU, calling it "an organization that has achieved nothing and has not brought forth that much integration", vis a vis the last few years and the immigration crisis. She caused a commotion amongst her party for speaking out against EC president Jean-Claude Juncker, calling him a "spectacular oaf" and said on RTM that he was "too lame and weak to do anything for the EU". She has also been openly critical of Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and Sofia Andersen; while all three are anti-EU, she has been critical of most of their viewpoints. House herself has been on occasion compared to Sierran politician Nemesis Heartwell, not for their political views but for their direct and radical approach to politics. Viewpoints House is considered to be a radical politician in Mariana. Taking from a Sierran politician's speech, House has called herself "alt-left" and "very anti-establishment" and against complacency in politics. Climate change and the environment House has stated that Mariana should take more of a stance towards an even better environment-friendly direction, and has worked at least in her government to have Palma on a greener direction. A number of her proposals as mayor have been to curb emissions in the city and to make Palma a leader in eco-friendliness. Congress House has heavily criticized congress and many of its members. She has stated that they have become very complacent and detached from the average citizen. During the SDP leadership race in 2016 she was openly critical of what she considered to be a cabal of the same politicians dominating congress. She has further stated that more power needs to be devolved to party members outside of congress, which was further stressed as the only member outside of congress running for the leadership. Devolution Mayor House has heavily campaigned for the devolution of powers from congress (and parties) to cities and municipal governments. She feels that too much power is concentrated with congressional members. In the run-up to the SDP leadership race, she stressed that of the near-4000 members of the party, less than 25 held any significant power nationally, and and that the sixty members in municipal government could in no way outweigh the power of a handful of representatives. Education House is a firm believer of public education and has vowed to further fund education to push Mariana to the forefront of education help develop the bright minds of the future. She has promised to help fund preschools, in particular for economically disadvantaged people, as it is "the first important step in a child's development". European Union Unlike the majority of the Social Democrats, especially at the national level, House has been vocally opposed to the European Union and Brunant's membership in it. She has been especially critical of European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, calling him "an idiot and an oaf", and someone who is "sinking the EU faster than any crisis ever could". She was one of a select number of prominent leftists to support Brexit, and has began calling for Brunant to do the same. In 2017 she repeatedly voiced her dislike at Mariana's contributions to the EU, particularly that when the bill gets passed down Palma has to give the largest contribution. This has been of her main points of critique on the EU, which is beginning to resonate with inhabitants of Palma. In November 2017, she began to threaten to halt the flow contributions to the government for EU purposes, which if enacted (though illegal) would be very significant. Free speech House is a firm believer of free speech, adhering to J.S. Mills' theories. She believes political correctness can and is taken too far, and that a balance is needed in the public sphere. Immigration House has been somewhat critical of the government's plan of bringing Syrian refugees to Mariana; while stating she feels for their plight she felt it was better to use the money to "improve the welfare of Mariana's lower-income citizens and combat inequality at home" before trying to accommodate refugees at greater cost. She opposes discrimination of immigrants in Mariana, as with all minorities, but does not believe that Mariana should be taking on new immigrants, more than they can handle. LGBT rights House is a big supporter of LGBT rights in Mariana. While not an open advocate for it, she has stated that their rights are just as important and does not believe any form of discrimination is to be tolerated. Republicanism House very much identifies as a republican, in contrast with the majority of the Social Democrats. She does not see it as an issue that must be tackled (as there are other more pressing ones), but upon assuming office she symbolically replaced the flag with a historic republican flag. Since then she has placed a portrait of 15th century republican revolter Martin Barnes alongside that of the queen. That said, she does not support the minor republican leftist faction in congress, due to their "divisive nature". Personal life House's father was from Palma and her mother is Romanian. She married Italian writer Angelo Rossi in 2011 and they have a son, Nico. Category:Mariana Category:People of Mariana